It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Makers and Takers. Republicans have a jobs plan for 100% Employment. It's called Slavery.

How did the Rich get their Wealth? By stealing the Labor and Wealth of the Poor. You can call it whatever new name the Rich have dreamed up; Austerity, Fix-the-Debt, Sequestration, Trickle Down Economics but it's all the Rich using the Power of Government to steal from the Middle Class and the Poor.

Now, for the past 30 years Republicans have gotten bolder and more outspoken in their plans to help the Rich institute a Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State under Corporate Dominance.

"I've been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that I've been in elected office," House Speaker John A. Boehner said to reporters on Wednesday. "And when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it."

John Boehner is a Republican; Republicans work for the Rich. Anything which hampers the ability of the Rich to steal more and more of the labor produced by the American Middle and Working Class is anathema to them. The Rich have ordered the Republicans to Destroy the Middle Class, President Obama had better not help them.

Under President Obama Income Inequality has continued to grow and even accelerated. In the third quarter of 2012, Corporate Profits were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago, after-tax profits are at their greatest percentage of GDP in history. But the record profits come at the same time Workers Wageshave fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP. Pretty Shitty Marxism...

While Corporate Profits are at an all time High, CEOs use the Carried Interest Tax Loophole and Off-Shore Tax Havens to hide Hundreds of Billions of Dollars.

1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.

Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 371.

Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.5 billion.

Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $3.32 billion.

Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion.

During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the Treasury Department.

4. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt

Number of offshore tax havens? At least 14.

Amount of federal income taxes General Electric would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $35.7 billion.

GE has stashed $102 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $35.7 billion more in federal income taxes.Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund. In 2010, not only did General Electric pay no federal income taxes, it received a $3.3 billion tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned over $5 billion in U.S. profits.

Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.During the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve provided GE with $16 billion in

financial assistance, at a time when Jeffrey Immelt was a director of the New York Federal Reserve.

Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001.

5. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam

Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.

In 2010, Verizon received a $705 million refund from the IRS despite earning $11.9 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits.

Amount of federal income taxes Verizon would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $525 million.

Verizon has stashed $1.5 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Verizon would owe an estimated $525 million in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.

Beyond Welfare Queens these Moocher Corporations, who use legerdemain and duplicitous book keeping to "make" profits, are Welfare Emperors and Pharaohs.

Thus the Nation's Wealth continues to consolidate in the hands of the Very Rich with the 1% controlling over 40% of Country's Wealth.

The Rich hate America. The "American Dream" isn't their Dream. Their interests never line up with that which concerns the 99%. The Rich don't recognize a need for a Clean Water Act, it's just an impediment to their pursuit of Profits. The Rich don't see a need for Obamacare or Medicaid or Medicare. Those Government Regulations and Officials undercut their attempts to extract as much profit from the sick, dying and old. They don't see Social Security as an asset to aid in retirement but as a pool of unrealized Capital.

Unionized and Pensioned Municipal Workers are a threat as the stability and relative job security take away the Rich's Most Powerful weapon, the layoff and firings.

But, all of the maneuvers by the Rich are designed to crush the Middle Class. A thriving Middle Class is always a Danger to the 1%. And how do you crush a wide disparate group of people? Why Divide & Conquer.

So, in 2009 the Plutocrats gave explicit instructions that every outlet they control would blame President Obama for everything wrong. And the Rich knew the work they had done with Conservative Think Tanks and Toxic Right-Wing Radio had cultivated a Ready Audience eager to blame the Other, Barack Hussein Obama, for all the Nations' Woes. Or as Bill Maher succinctly summed up the Conservative Message, 'America was just swell until President Blackenstein and his group of Thugs ruined everything.'

Of course, the Plutocracy's Economic Hit Job and their Republican Hit Men have been working for decades using Piss Down Your Back and Tell you It's Raining Trickle Down Theory to undercut the Middle Class and increase Income Inequality.

Sequestration is just another technique to hamper the Government. But, the Government functions which will be hampered aren't those that affect Rich. The Sequester provides the Plutocracy with yet another opportunity to grind the Middle Class into dust. After which the Rich will swoop in like Vultures and pick at the remnants.

But, all of this is just new names and a new twist to the Very Old Dance the Rich and Powerful have engaged in throughout Recorded History. Fix-the-Debt and Austerity are just new names for the techniques the Rich have always used to steal from the People. And that is Slavery.

23 comments:

Every criminal on your list should be prosecuted. I don't doubt that they want to make slaves of us. All I can hope for is that enough of us can come together and overcome this plutocracy. I fear we are looking at anew "Dark Age" instead of the renaissance we should be enjoying. The Dark Ages came after Rome fell and there are some very scary parallels to what we are seeing in our government today.

The Rich really consider themselves Superior. They consider themselves the Nobility of the 21st Century. They are Entitled. They are Captains of Indsutry. They are the Barons of Finance. They are the Titans of Humanity.

The rich are essentially grifter welfare whores, using little pieces of paper to scam We The People into believing that they own the output of our labor. Richard Branson, for example, would be penniless if not for the thousands of pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, baggage workers, etc. that fly his planes, yet many of his workers qualify for government assistance while Richard Branson steals the product of their labor to make himself rich... then whines when the workers want to use government to redistribute some of the wealth *they* produced back to him? Bah humbug!

Thanks for stopping by Badtux,<a href="http://my.chicagotribune.com/#story/sns-rt-us-mariobatalibre82c03e-20120312/'>Celebrity Chef Mario Batali agreed to pay out $5.25 million</a> to his former employees to settle a class-action lawsuit.

According to the article, Batali and the other owners of the eateries unlawfully skimmed four to five percent of the staff's wine or alcoholic beverage sales from the tip pool, taking an unlawful "tip credit," paying staff members less than the minimum wage, and failing to provide "spread-of-hours" pay -- that is, extra pay when a double shift extends over a certain number of hours in the day.

The lawsuit encompasses staff members who worked at the restaurants from July 22, 2004 to February 14, 2012 -- a group that numbers approximately 1,100.

Instead of slavery, I think "wage slavery" more accurately describes what you're talking about. Actual slave masters are out the cost of their slave if the slave dies, but a wage slave is easily replaceable (lots of unemployed people desperate for jobs).

Although it's possible that we (in referring to people being paid low wages as slaves) only do so because we are completely ignorant of economics.

When I read blogs such as this I'm left to wonder about the author and their misplaced anger. Is it that they are still young and haven't learned any better? Or is it they have learned how life works and they resent themselves for having done it so wrong for so long?

The animosity towards the 1% is exactly what class warfare pimps such as oBama want. Exploit tax loopholes!? Phrased another way they abide by the tax laws more closely than the average person. That's like saying I'm exploiting the speeding ticket loopholes by driving the speed limit.

What's next? Want big daddy oBama to take from the rich and give to the people who voted for him? You may have not felt the joy of receiving because he's only been giving to those who gave to him. oBama is as big a crony capitalist as we've ever seen.

I'm not part of the 1% but I owe a lot more grace to the 1% than I do the bottom 25-50%. The 1% paid a lot more towards my public elementary and secondary education than the bottom 50% did. The 1% contributed 99% of the money that built the college (ASU) I attended. The bottom 50% looks pretty selfish contributing less than 1% of the cost of building that establishment of higher learning.

Having been raised by a single mom we didn't have extra money so I paid my own way through school. In addition to student loans I had to work in order to pay my way. Those loans by the way have become much more expensive thanks to the peoples hero oBama making them more affordable. (Healthcare deja vu?)

Yeah, whine about how unfair it all is. Whine about the 1% sticking it to the little guy. But then take an honest look at what the 1% contributes versus what the bottom 25-50% contribute and understand how incredibly selfish the bottom half really is. It is not all that difficult to rise above it but it does require you work for it.

I wore a name tag on my shirt while I worked my way through school. I don't wear my name on my shirt anymore; now I wear it on my office door. Anyone else can do the same. It's just a matter of being willing to do what it takes and whining will never get you there.

Oh wow, so the bottom 50% of America are moochers and takers despite being the people who picked the crops and processed the meat that went into the food you ate today, that hauled the garbage away that otherwise would make your home uninhabitable, crap, the bottom 50% *BUILT* the home you live in, yet you still think they're "moochers and takers" despite paying a higher TOTAL tax rate than the top 1% (who pay a lower tax rate than I do) and despite you being *literally* homeless if not for the bottom 50%... wow. Just wow. Talk about someone who has Drunk The Kool-Aid and become a willing slave!

A free man doesn't need a 1% to make his way through life. What he does need is for the 1% to quit forcing him into a slave relationship where they take what he creates and then claim they "create" that wealth when all they do is loot wealth created by others by claiming they own the labor of others (i.e. slavery). 'Nuff said.

Chicken Hammer? Trust me, you are not even close to being part of the 1% you idolize. I've never been on welfare, even as a child too poor to eat more than one skimpy meal per day. I've served my nation in the military, and my husband and I pay a higher tax rate than Mitt Romney although we are not part of the 1% either.

Chickenhawk, people receiving welfare benefits account for less than 5% of the U.S. population. So you're saying that the other 45% of the bottom 50% contribute nothing? That the fact that they're the people who serve your food when you go to restaurants, take your garbage away so you don't die underneath a pile of filth, etc. means nothing and in fact makes them "takers"?

Please stop eating in restaurants and take your own garbage to the garbage dump if you believe the people who work in such professions are "takers". Because clearly you're too good to associate with such filth. Oh yeah, quit going to grocery stores and handing over money to minimum-wage bottom-50% workers to pay for your groceries too, because you're too good to associate with those people, right? They're just "takers", so we don't need them anyhow, right?

Americans are the hardest-working most productive people in the civilized world. Every single statistic we have shows that. You accusing 50% of the American people of being lazy and worthless simply doesn't match the numbers. How could Americans be the most productive people in the 1st world if they're so lazy? The mind boggles...

BadTux for the sake of the argument I'll drop my argument to only include the bottom 25%. Garbage collectors, groceries store cashiers, and the people who work in the restaurants where my wife and I dine are all in the upper 75% of wage earners.

What it really comes down to though is the unrelenting hate. Why do people who haven't put that much into their future hate those who have? An even more tremendous amount of hate has been focused on the top 1%. Did anyone ever stop to wonder if it wasn't just a misdirection, something to get your attention off of what a lousy job our last couple of presidents have done for the people?

Do the math. If you took 100% of the income of the top 1% you still couldn't balance the budget.

Does it make you feel better about yourself to call me names? How young are you? LOL

Chickenhawk, so you're saying everybody making under $25,000 per year (roughly the cutoff you just gave us) is a moocher and a taker and envious of you? The waitress you just said made more than $25,000 per year doesn't -- she is going to make roughly $16,000/year if she's good and gets a lot of tips, according to Census Bureau stats (all of this is from the Census Bureau wage surveys). That puts her at roughly the 15th percentile. Sanitation workers that you just said made more than $25,000 per year don't -- they average roughly $24,000/year, which puts them at almost exactly the 25% that you posit, so I guess if you're boycotting the "takers" you at least won't drown in your garbage. And grocery store clerks? $22,000/year. Crop pickers? $19,000/year

So go pick your own food since clearly those people are "takers" who contribute nothing to the economy, I'm sure as a "maker" you don't need them. Meanwhile I will happily support paying higher taxes on myself (note, I'm in the top 10% of income) if means that I don't have to pick my own crops, am able to eat out occasionally, and get my garbage picked up on a regular basis... as for the ultra-rich? Hmm. GE paid 2% of their income as taxes over the past ten years. Mitt Romney paid 15% of his income as taxes over the past ten years. I don't know about you, but I'm paying a crapload more than either of them in taxes as a percentage of my income. My problem with the rich isn't that they're rich. My problem with the rich is that they aren't paying their fair share. 'Nuff said on that.

Wow, ChickenHammer, I love how you assume everyone disagreeing with you isn't a member of the working class, too. And frankly, IF they took the same percentage from the 1% as they do from the bottom 50%....yes, it would DRASTICALLY reduce the deficit. I strongly urge you to go watch ALL of this to wrap your mind around reality of American wealth and the lack thereof.

This is also the argument used by Erick Erickson and those despicable right-wingers who fancied themselves the 53%, echoed by Vulture Capitalist Mitt Romney in his 47% video, and Rick Santorum in his "not giving Blahhh People" white Iowans money.

The Poor are the "Lucky Duckies". Getting away with not paying Taxes (errr, except for all those gas taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, SSI taxes, medicare taxes and so forth...)

But, the only question for Chicken Hammer is if he would change places with a Poor person in order to be living the easy life he assumes they have stealing hard working *cough* White *cough* money?

Oh Grung_e_Gene where in the world did you get that? Herman Cain? Really!?

There is a lot of truth to the "If your [sic] poor blame yourself." statement. But to use statistical outliers to discredit it? Really!?

That kid born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome got dealt a raw deal, however; that kid is part of a very small minority that will be taken care of.

The person with unexpected and bankrupting medical bills; again, an outlier. That is a horrible situation for the person or family involved but just a nanoscopic drop in our huge economy.

The veteran addicted to pain pills and spiraling out of control towards suicide; again, an outlier.

As awful as each and everyone of your examples are they are not the real source of poverty. They are the exception to the rule. They are the statistical outliers. Wipe those problems off the map and you have solved .00001% of the poverty problem.

Not only are those situations outliers but they are often recoverable. I have survived one of the situations you mention. I work and socialize with several other people who have recovered from the examples you offer.

The outcome of a persons life is 99% determined by the individual person and their family support unit. The people who get educated and play by the rules find themselves living in nicer parts of the country, in nicer houses, driving nicer cars. These people usually come from strong and close families.

The children who come from broken and fatherless families contribute more than any one other group to poverty. We don't address that problem because so many people are afraid to say what becomes so very apparent when we research that line of poverty. I'll leave you with that as I've reached the point where my liberal friends get uncomfortable and start trying to misdirect the conversation.

Don't give me that "outlier" crap. You are a vicious mean vile person.

When a man such as you uses percentages you blithely allow people to fall through the cracks. It's a natural consequence of conservative thinking.

You sit on your high perch and look down on those who didn't make it by consoling yourself about your hard work while others who didn't make it are lazy or come from certain type of "broken and fatherless families".

GrungE, the statistics say that the United States has a caste system. In every other Western country (other than the UK) whether you're born rich or poor doesn't matter, everybody goes to the same schools and has the same opportunities, whether rich or poor, but the United States is different. If you are born poor, there's a 90%+ chance that you will die poor. If you are born rich, there's a 90%+ chane that you will die rich. And the system is rigged to make sure of this, the children of the poor get the worst schools, the least amount of opportunity for a college education, the least access to the capital needed to succeed, while the rich, ah yes, the rich. It is indeed a great thing to be born rich in America. Indeed, the vast majority of the rich in America earned not a cent of their wealth -- they inherited it. They were winners of the lucky sperm club, and by and large are rather dim bulbs because they haven't ever had to be smart to succeed. Millionaires like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush who "earned" their wealth by virtue of their fathers' connections are hardly an exception to this, every business that GWB managed failed, and he was bailed out by daddy time after time. Well, a poor kid doesn't have a rich daddy to bail him out. Just sayin'.

But hey, it's easy to say that this horrifying caste system we've created in America is because the poors are dumb and the rich are smart, rather than a case of the system being rigged against the poor and for the rich. That means We The People don't have to actually do something about the situation. After all, we want to see what Honey Boo Boo does... what, you want us Americans to get up off our asses and, like, actually *do* something? The horror, oh the horror!

You're Just Sayin' you are a racist. Like Rick Santorum you are blaming "Blahhh People" when the actual statistics show overwhelmingly that "white" Americans.

Of course, Race is a bullshit construct. But, it's always enlightening to read someone take of groups when they, most likely, ascribe to the evil conservative ideology which doesn't believe in group dynamics.

Oh really Craig? I was married to a Jew. By the way, it's not a race, it's a religion. So how you compare Jews and Asians is weird, "just sayin'" The notion that Jews, who have been "beaten down", along with Asians and don't have the "poverty problem" is crap. We had two incomes and we were barely over the poverty line, to put it bluntly. My Jewish husband, died in a car accident when he was 39. He still had student loans and debt to repay, since he had no means, i.e. fortune to his name to get an education. Craig, you seem to think Jews and Asians have some vast fortune or money, squirreled away in their mattress to mitigate their poverty. Oh and let's talk about "other groups" and their "poverty problem". Like single mothers? I am a single mother, since I was unfortunately widowed and that is a "poverty problem" even though I was married to a Jew and should never have had a "poverty problem". It's kind of confusing, "just sayin." What about those "other groups" (how fascist is that?)Because other groups can just scrape by, "just sayin." Exactly what are you "just sayin"? It's all nonsense. When things don't make sense, guess what? it's nonsense.

Waste not your time with the Trollish Craig. He's a Big-ot who dropped this drive-by inflammatory comment and has vanished into the dark recesses of his own mind.

*- My comment got cut off but recent statistics reveal that minorities receive less in government programs than what they contribute, but that doesn't matter because right-wing racists have the math which makes them feel better.

"I've visited your site before, and I want to tell you this isn't personal, but I don't like your smarmy comments and the way you conduct yourself..."- Blue Pit Bull

"Come back and post when you have some actual LIFE EXPERIENCE to tell us about, you callow and craven ignoramus." - Bloviating Zeppelin

"...you do a good job describing the obvious in a form of intelli-rage that comes across fresh and to the point." - Gwendolyn H. Barry.

"I hate your blog, so when it appeared on my Wordpress' "incoming links" (for no apparent reason), I was all set to mock this entry, but I found nothing wrong with it whatsoever..." - Francois Tremblay

One last thing before I go. I made a CPD friend aware of your blog. He doesn't think you're genuine either but he's looking into you and your posts. But whatever the case he's looking for you and if he finds you he wants for all of your colleagues to see your blog and where you stand on the issues. Later homie! - ChickenHammer